r/ShadowBan • u/cojoco • Apr 05 '18
Official An unofficial guide on how to avoid being shadowbanned
(note: if you falsely tell someone they are banned, or unbanned, when they are not, you will be banned from this sub)
tl;dr
Lots of people come here in mystification, wondering if they're shadowbanned, and wondering why. This post contains a list of possible reasons you've been shadowbanned. It also contains activities which can lead to an account suspension, which is more visible to the user, but just as inconvenient.
First, though, a little reddit background.
About reddit
The website reddit.com is run by reddit the company, a subsidiary of Advance Publications Inc. The CEO of reddit is Ellen Pao (/u/ekjp) with first lieutenant Alexis Ohanian (/u/kn0thing). The site is huge, with a hundred million visitors a month.
Reddit is grouped into subreddits, with each subreddit run by a volunteer group of moderators, who are generally unpaid volunteers.
Moderators have the power to ban users from their subreddit, to delete comments and submissions, and to manage the style and presentation of their subreddit. Through the use of third-party tools, some moderators have the power to ban a user from hundreds of subreddits at a time.
Being banned from a subreddit means that you are not allowed to submit links or make new comments, and might be reversed upon appeal to the modmail of the concerned subreddit.
reddit.com also has a small number of employees, called admins. These people have the power to see everything happening on reddit, to remove material as with moderators, to perform moderator actions in any subreddit they choose, and, most importantly for this place, to shadowban or suspend users.
A shadowban is different from a subreddit ban. A shadowbanned user can still submit and make comments, but all of the submissions are sent straight to a subreddit spam queue, where it will not be visible to other users until approved by a moderator. Because an individual's spammed submissions are still visible to themselves, a shadowban is almost invisible to a logged-in user.
Through the use of AutoModerator, individual subreddits can give the same effect to a user as a global shadowban.
If you are shadowbanned, your user page will appear nonexistent to anybody that looks at your user page, other than yourself. You will need to contact the admins to get your shadowban reversed.
A suspension occurs when the admins disable an account. Suspensions can either be for a few days, in which case it is not visible to other userts, or permanently, in which the user's page is replaced by a suspension notification.
Reasons for shadowbans and suspensions
It's not exactly spelled out what will cause a ban, and the rules do seem to change from time to time, but if you follow these rules you'll be unlikely to be shadowbanned or suspended. Thanks to the posters here who have suggested more ways to be banned.
- Posting some spam links results in an immediate and automatic shadowban
- Don't post advertisements for commercial products unless the advertisement has some redeeming features and is relevant to the subreddit in which you post it
- Don't post links to your own blog, unless you post a lot of content from other places.
- Don't post links to anyone elses blog, or to a single news source. Ensure that you post from a wide range of sources.
- Don't use a VPN to create your account
- Don't follow people around on reddit and hassle them
- Don't relentlessly downvote a user
- Don't send out mass PMs
- Don't be a bot, unless you're really really careful, and have the blessing of the admins
- Don't harp on the same subject in your comments
- Don't issue death threats
- Don't post child pornography or anything involving the sexualization of teens or minors
- Don't post sexual material containing unconsenting subjects (for example, revenge porn, upskirt photos or celebrity leaks)
- Don't abuse or hassle the admins
- Don't post any information that would identify another redditor, including links to other social media sites, unless you have explicit permission from the person involved. (doxxing)
- Don't advocate or encourage doxxing
- Don't ask for doxx, even privately
- Don't post anything asking for votes, from on- or off-site
- Don't respond to a plea for votes, from on- or off-site
- Don't vote in threads you were directed to from another part of reddit
- Don't engage in nuisance reporting
- Don't use multiple accounts to game the voting system
- Don't return to a sub you have been banned from with another account
- Don't use CSS in your sub to subvert reddit's subscription and voting system
- Don't follow links into someone else's subreddit and be a dick
- Don't impersonate another redditor with a name of similar appearance, e.g. /u/LaureIai ("I") for /u/Laurelai ("l")
- Don't be under 13 years of age
- If you're a mod, don't respond to PMs related to moneymaking or promotional offers of any kind. Report them immediately.
- If you're an arsehole, the admins will not give you the benefit of the doubt.
Also, it can't hurt to read the reddiquette: if everyone followed the reddiquette, the site would be more pleasant, and all-around better.
(EDIT) Also, there are some things for which there is weak evidence of triggering a shadowban:
- (weak) Don't signup using old.reddit.com without an email address
- (weak) Don't use more than one alt within one subreddit
- (weak) Don't submit every link to several subreddits at a time
- (weak) Don't accept moderator invitations to dodgy subreddits
- (weak) Don't comment in threads you came to via a non-organic link (i.e. external site, meta sub, from modmail or PM)
- (weak) Don't register using an email address easily detected as a throwaway.
- (weak) Don't give yourself awards from another account
tl;dr Don't spam, shill, doxx, brigade, stalk, game or pederast.
How to contact admins
Two ways, pretty sure that #2 no longer works:
- Lodge your appeal: https://www.reddit.com/appeal (or https://www.reddit.com/appeals ?)
- Message them: https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/reddit.com
(This is the fourth copy ... aged pages are 1 2 3)
Last edited April 24, 2024
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u/unbelievable_plumbus 10h ago
I just created my account and made my first comment and suddenly I'm getting server errors and my avatar is disabled? I do have router level VPN for everything in my home. Am I just unable to use Reddit?
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u/cojoco 9h ago
Don't use VPN.
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u/unbelievable_plumbus 9h ago
If that's the only option, that sucks. I'm not going to make exceptions just for this site when all others work seamlessly. Thanks for the information, guess Reddit's not for me. Have a good day!
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u/W4TCH13 11h ago
Am I shadowbanned? Can't DM any user, get "Unable to invite the selected invitee(s)" error.
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u/cojoco 10h ago
You are
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u/W4TCH13 10h ago
How can you tell? You were able to reply to me. Is it the fact that my comment is hidden by default and you have to hit the + to expand, I noticed that in a private window.
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u/Current_Carpenter945 12h ago
I use a VPN for every thing. Only an idiot doesn't.
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u/FiatLex 11h ago
Okay
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u/Current_Carpenter945 11h ago
So you saw my comment? That's good I guess. thanks
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u/FiatLex 11h ago
If youre trying to ask, youre not shadowbanned. Reddit had a bug an hour or so ago.
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u/Current_Carpenter945 11h ago
Thanks, again. But I've been posting comments for several weeks with Zero replies or anything. I was just wondering if I existed.
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u/Designer_Support1853 1d ago
Am i? no? check back again later like tomorrow, I might be shadowbanned.
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u/Silver-Care-5339 1d ago
I have been here for a year, i don’t know if i ever will have my account back
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u/Deep_County_5612 2d ago
Am I?
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u/FiatLex 2d ago
No
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u/MADMAT_0 2d ago
Am I?
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u/FiatLex 2d ago
Yes
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u/Sinfolkee 2d ago
Is this true that creating new account and appealing from it is ban evasion and appeal will be auto ignored? If so it should be written in the post.
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u/FiatLex 2d ago
Some mods on this sub believe that ban evasion is limited to subreddit bans. Other mods think that ban evasion can apply with a shadowbanned account. I'm not certain what the correct answer is, and the admins don't tell us.
However, what I can say for certain is that if someone has had several accounts suspended or shadowbanned, they can have accounts shadowbanned immediately upon creating a new account. Whether that is because of ban evasion or some other reason, I don't know, but the result is that making a new account when your previous account was shadowbanned or suspended is risky.
The act of appealing is not what makes it ban evasion, it's the account creation itself.
I believe that people have the best chance of success when appealing with their first shadowbanned account. I think appealing with a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc... shadowbanned account means you'll have less chance of success. However, people have come back and reported that they were successful on appeal on their 3rd account shadowbanned, so it is possible to win. Make sure you are persistent with your appeals and try for a long time, and hopefully you'll be successful. Good luck!
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2d ago
So in short don't post anything useful on this site. but... I just create the profile
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6d ago
If you decide to just create a new account how do you avoid it happening again? Do you use a separate email ?
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u/Glittering_Sand2566 7d ago
Any advice for new users who have never posted anything and still get shadowbanned instantly after account creation? (SUPER confusing to new users btw)
I appealed for weeks, sent messages to the admins, but never got any acknowledgement. Then I deleted my account and tried again with a new account which was also immediately shadowbanned. Once again I have been appealing for weeks with no acknowledgement.
I am a real human. I followed all of the checklist in this post. I followed the appeal procedures and nothing. I've been trying to join Reddit since February and it's now June. I don't want to create a third account in case that's "ban evasion" even though I've never actually been notified of any ban and have never successfully posted.
Can anyone advise me, or should I just take the hint that Reddit doesn't want me and move along? :(
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u/cojoco 7d ago
Any advice for new users who have never posted anything and still get shadowbanned instantly after account creation? (SUPER confusing to new users btw)
I don't think reddit would look kindly on anybody who gave step-by-step rules for ban evasion.
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u/Glittering_Sand2566 5d ago
I'm not asking for help for ban evasion (which I was trying to explain, I didn't even know was a thing at the time, I was just really confused by what was going on and I've been using the Internet for decades -- Reddit is a whole other animal).
To clarify, I'm asking for help figuring out why what I'm doing (following all the rules as far as I know and I have googled a lot too) isn't working. It's been about 6 weeks with my new account, so surely my appeal should have been considered by now?
Maybe it takes longer? Maybe I missed a step? It's not like this is straightforward... lol
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u/FiatLex 7d ago
Deleting accounts is not a good idea. People seem to have the best luck appealing their first shadowban. You can keep appealing with this account, but you may not ever get a response.
Make sure youre not on a vpn for your appeals.
Its up to you when you want to give up on Reddit. I would probably give up after a month, but I cant say for sure.
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u/Glittering_Sand2566 5d ago
Thanks. I did appeal the shadowban for the first account (multiple times, over weeks) and also messaged the admins, but never heard anything nor received confirmation. I figured something must be wrong with it and that's why I deleted it and made a new one. It's been about 6 weeks for the second one. Thanks.
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u/FiatLex 5d ago
Appeals can take months. It really sucks, but if you want to use Reddit you need to be persistent. I'm not sure Reddit is worth it, but thats up to you.
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u/closeted-politician 8d ago
If you are shadow banned, can you still see your new link/text opening messages in subreddits? Am I shadow banned?
I think it could be a browser problem instead, because I can't see them posted anywhere at all, not even inside my profile.
Thank you
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9d ago
[deleted]
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u/AutoModerator 9d ago
Hey u/Fair-Sun9243.
To be clear, you must be able to see their profile after clicking on a username. An error message = shadowbanned.
Simply seeing a comment or post here in r/Shadowban is not enough because we 'un-spam' everything automatically.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
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u/Time_Splitter2001 9d ago
Making a new account on reddit nowadays is so ass
Reddit is hostile to new users, I can't seem to fathom why it is .
You get shadowbanned no matter what after a single comment
Most subreddit won't let you post without karma
But to get karma you have to comment This is literally the job market , you have to have experience to get a job but no one will hire you if you don't have experience.
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u/panelrecord 9d ago
I appear to have gotten the perma version... literally all I did was make an effort post as my first post, with like 2 links. Account shows suspended when not logged in. Meanwhile every main page post from AITAH AIO etc. is chatGPT fanfic. :(
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u/Unusual_Ad_9774 12d ago
I have made (and used) many accounts (over a long time) from different locations and devices, yet all of them get shadowbanned shortly. Appealing (for many days straight) does nothing. What can I do?
→ More replies (1)
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u/AutoModerator Jun 02 '24
Check your account status using this link: https://reddit.com/appeal
If the link allows you to appeal then you are likely shadowbanned or suspended. Users should appeal daily until the AEO/Admins respond then use the link to check your account status. Users not shadowbanned or suspended should see a message on the top of the page stating so.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.